Phiala E. Shanahan

Phiala E. Shanahan is the Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research focuses on theoretical nuclear and particle physics, particularly the structure of hadrons and nuclei from QCD. She integrates machine learning to overcome computational challenges in QCD studies, pioneering techniques for lattice gauge theory simulations. Affiliated with MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics, Laboratory for Nuclear Science, and the NSF AI Institute for Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI), she also collaborates with Jefferson Lab and the Electron-Ion Collider project.

Education: BSc (2012) and PhD (2015) from the University of Adelaide. Career: Postdoctoral Associate at MIT (2015–2017), then joint position as Assistant Professor at College of William & Mary and Senior Staff Scientist at Jefferson Lab (2017–2018) before joining MIT in 2018.

Research Interests: Gluon structure in nuclei, strange quarks in protons/nuclei, and machine learning applications. Her work predicts gluon distributions testable at Jefferson Lab and the Electron-Ion Collider, with implications for dark matter detection via precision calculations. She also explores nuclear forces and symmetry-breaking effects in QCD.

Awards: 2023 South Australian Woman of the Year, 2022 Ruby Payne-Scott Medal, 2021 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award (APS), 2020 Kenneth G. Wilson Award, 2018 NSF CAREER Award, 2016 Bragg Gold Medal.

Grants & Labs: DOE Early Career Award (2020), IAIFI affiliate, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. Active in public engagement, including a Perimeter Institute lecture on 'The Building Blocks of the Universe.'